Adolescence: The Search for Self and Weaving the Social Fabric of the Class

For teachers and parents of adolescents and those interested in the art of working with groups.

Lecture 1, Adolescence: The Search for the Self, develops a threefold picture of adolescence and offers helpful suggestions for parents and teachers. ‘The arts…provide that delicate balance between self-expression and objectivity that adolescents sorely need…. What is unique about Waldorf schools is not that they provide courses in art and courses in academics [but] that virtually all courses are at once academic and artistic, so that the adolescent is always addressed as a whole person.

Lecture 2, Weaving the Social Fabric of the Class, pertains mainly to teachers, but offers valuable insights on the temperaments for parents as well. The title of this lecture…brings to mind a remark that the British writer Carlyle once made about the difference between youth and old age, He said that when we are young, our life unfolds like a beautiful tapestry. When we grow old, we are permitted to step behind the tapestry. It is no longer so beautiful, but at last we can see all of the threads and follow their connections.